Employers like Home Depot, British Airways, the NYS Department of Labor along with over 100 other employers set up at the 8th Annual Job Fair at the Shops at Atlas Park.

While there were a little over one thousand job opportunities offered at the fair, there were well over an estimated 3,000 job seekers lined up outside the front gates, waiting to get in and spread their resumes.

Joseph Collazo, who has been out of work for the last three months, stood at the front of the line for hours before the fair opened their doors.

Collazo was a health insurance representative prior to losing his job. While he still looking for a job in the same line of service, he is also willing to change his focus depending on the demand.

“It’s very frustrating now-a-days to find something that isn’t less than $15-an-hour,” Collazo said. “To make a living you need more than $15-an-hour to feed your children.”

Lucia Zampini, a former sales and services rep for Capital One Bank, said she is now looking for work after her company went through a “huge reorganization.”

“It happened with us, and then a few days later the Bank of America did the same thing and then Chase,” Zampini said. “It’s just the banking industry today.”

NY State Senator Joseph Addabbo said that while not everyone will be able to find a job at the fair, he plans to continue holding events for job seekers as long as there is unemployment.

“I don’t need a statistic to tell me that there is an unemployment rate out there,” Addabbo said. “We just talk to our people and we find out there are people out there looking for work.”

Peter DeLucia, the marketing manager with the Shops at Atlas Park, said he is confident the fair has a wide-enough range of jobs and that there is something for everyone.

He added that he hopes the fair would boost the economy and bring more business to the mall in the future.

“We want to be good neighbors, and I think an event like this shows that we want to be good neighbors,” DeLucia said. “When people work, it’s good for everybody, it’s less of a drain when they’re not collecting unemployment and it’s good for us because there’s hopefully another potential shopper.”